


Merry Band of Monsters

by Barkour



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Halloween, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-14
Updated: 2011-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-27 07:52:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/293412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barkour/pseuds/Barkour
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Tora and Guy help their kids get ready for a night of trick or treating, a minor crisis breaks out. Can even these two bravest of heroes save the evening from that most dreaded of foes, sibling rivalry?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merry Band of Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> Future fic for the pre-DCnU reboot continuity. Originally posted to my tumblr on Halloween; alas, it's a bit late here!

A minor disaster stuck mere minutes before they'd planned to blast out, as Guy had put it. Tora was halfway into her black turtleneck--the arms flopped on either side of her head--when Darrin started wailing. She yanked the sweater down her head.

"Tora, babe," Guy shouted, in that way he had of slurring the two words together,  _Tora-babe_ , sweeter to her now than most other endearments, "we got ourselves a crisis."

Darrin's scream doubled: Joseph had started, too. She zipped her costume up hurriedly over the sweater and spared a glance in the mirror. Better, but she still didn't much care for the way the costume's neck cut down between her breasts. And what happened to the girl who ran around in a v-neck leotard? she thought with amusement, but she knew. Men who stared at her breasts had happened; but she didn't want to think of that tonight.

Tora fluffed her hair and opened the bathroom door to go out in search of her children. She found them ranged on the landing at the top of the stairs.

The kids had picked their costumes the week before, all but for Ingrid, who was, of course, too small. Thank all things holy and sweet she hadn't stirred; she slept in her carrier, the hood of her green dragon costume flopped down over her eyes.

Guy had Darrin hoisted in his arms, red-faced Darrin who was coughing with the force of his tears.

Tora rushed past sleeping Ingrid and Joseph, who was shouting, "Can't, can't, can't!"

"What is it? Is he all right?" She brushed Darrin's hot, wet cheek and switched to her mother's tongue. "Sweetling, are you all right?"

"No-o-o-o-o," Darrin screamed.

Guy bounced Darrin on his hip and looked over his cloud of white hair at Tora. "He says he--" Guy broke off and looked at her again. "What, is this what you've been hiding from me all week? Or did you snag a Star Sapphire ring and not tell me about it?"

Tora made a moue at him, though yes, she  _was_  pleased he'd noticed, and she didn't mind the way his eyes had gone wide. 

"Darrin says--"

"He says he doesn't want to go as a pirate any more," Guy said, to which Joseph, who'd come to stand beside Tora, shouted, "Has to!" Guy ignored him.

Tora stroked Darrin's cheek again and said, "Then what do you want to go as, sweetling?" very gently.

He turned his face, rubbing it against Guy's chest. "Wanna be a princess," he said. "Wanna be a princess!"

"He can't!" Joseph shouted. "We said pirates! He  _can't_ !"

Darrin's face scrunched up. His lips trembled. Hastily, Guy turned around so his broad shoulders blocked Joseph from Darrin.

"Hey, hey, no more crying, okay?" He petted Darrin's pale head. "Maybe we shouldn't've skipped your nap today, huh? Too much candy, not enough sleep."

"They skipped their nap?" Tora asked, her voice rising. 

Guy made a frantic cut-off gesture over his shoulder. To her? She sucked in breath, indignant.

Then Joseph said, "Naps are dumb! Daddy said!" and Guy said, "Tattletale. And I never said naps were dumb--"

"Did to!" Joseph argued. "Said naps were real dumb!"

"Wanna be a  _princess_ ," Darrin sobbed. "Wanna go like Guðrún."

"Everyone, stop," Tora commanded. She'd enough ice in her voice--enough of her mother in her throat--that they listened, too, though Joseph looked mutinous and Darrin still heaved soft cries into Guy's chest as Guy patted Darrin's thin and bony back. From the chaos of the League to the chaos of home.

In that little pocket of quiet, Ingrid snuffled and then yawned; but she didn't wake.

"Where is Guðrún?" Tora asked softly but with no less ice.

"I'm here," Guðrún called from the stairs. She sat on the third step with her legs pulled up and her pink spray-painted Batman mask hanging down against the sequined collar of her gown. "Can we  _go_ ?"

"Just another moment, dear, and we can go," said Tora. She looked to Guy. "I'm going to talk with Joseph for just one minute."

He took the lead-off easily. Jogging Darrin in his arms, Guy headed down the steps. He thumped Guðrún's shoulder in passing and she scrambled to her feet. The Batman mask danced off her chest.

"Hey," Guy said, "you wanna be a princess, buddy? Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy and all that junk."

"All that junk," said Guðrún.

"I'll just use the fairy godmother I got in my ring and presto, change-o, you're a bona fide glass slipper princess--"

"He can't!" Joseph said angrily to Tora. "He's gotta be a pirate!" Now Joseph looked near to tears. Both her boys turned so red in the face when they cried.

Tora sank into a crouch before Joseph, careful not to spill out of her heels. He'd changed into his costume already, bandanna tied around his white hair, a fake hook clipped to his ear. She lifted the patch from his left eye and brushed the tears away with her thumb.

"We  _said_ ," Joseph told her. "We said pirates. Dumb Darrin--"

"Darrin is not dumb," Tora said firmly. Then she softened. "I know you wanted to go as pirates with your brother--"

"He said!"

"But Darrin doesn't want to be a pirate any more," she said, as if he hadn't burst again. She stroked his brow. "You can still go as a pirate."

"He wanna go with  _Guðrún_ ," Joseph muttered.

"Oh, darling," Tora said, "that doesn't mean Darrin doesn't want to go trick or treating with you, too."

Joseph looked down to his feet, to her feet. "Don't wanna be only pirate."

A memory, then. A memory of something she hadn't thought of in a very long time: of running after her brother through one of the ice mazes the sages kept. She'd gotten lost in the maze, though it wasn't a very tricky one, but she'd been young; she'd been young, and she'd called out for her brother, but he hadn't come back for her.

She tickled Joseph's cheek with her fingernail. He scowled, but he looked up, too. Tora smiled.

"What if I went as a pirate, too? Would you like that?"

Joseph's face began to clear. His thick, pale eyebrows went up. Tora made a show then of tapping her finger against her lip and wrinkling her brow, as if someone else entirely had made the suggestion and she had to think it over.

"Guðrún and Darrin can go as princesses," she said slowly, "and you and me can go as..."

"Pirates!" Joseph said. His face was still red, his cheeks shining, but the worst of the storm had passed.

"But I don't have anything to wear," Tora said. "Do you?"

"Yeah! Come on!"

Joseph grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the playroom. Laughing, Tora staggered to her feet--the left heel leaned dangerously out then steadied--and followed him.

They came down the stairs a few minutes later, Joseph tromping in the lead and Tora carefully toting Ingrid against her shoulder, and when Guy looked up, he bit down on his lip. His cheeks pushed out. Tora made a face and then reached up to adjust the tri-corner hat that didn't quite fit.

"Mama's a pirate," Joseph announced.

"I'm a princess," Darrin said happily from his perch on Guy's shoulders. The dress Guy had willed up for Darrin was green, puffy, and lit as if with a lamp from within, and Tora smiled to see how proud her son was of it.

"Can we go  _now_ ?" Guðrún asked. She'd pulled her Batman mask up so only her red hair and her mouth showed. "All the candy's gonna be gone!"

"We got plenty of candy already," Guy told her.

"Does everyone have their buckets?" Tora asked, checking.

"If you don't," Guy said, "don't worry about it. I've gotcha covered."

"We're trying to teach them personal responsibility," she reminded him sternly. 

Guy mimed knocking himself in the head. Darrin giggled and so, too, did Joseph, wonder of wonders.

"I got my bucket and I got Darrin's," Guðrún said loudly. "And Joseph's got his. Can we  _please_  go?"

"Look at that," said Guy, "magic word and ain't nobody had to prompt you."

"We can go," Tora conceded, and Guðrún hauled the door open with admirable violence for a six year old. "Stay together!"

"I  _know!_ " Guðrún shouted. "Come  _on!_ "

Tora cradled Ingrid, who'd started drooling in her sleep, to her shoulder and followed Guðrún and Joseph onto the stoop. Ducking low so Darrin wouldn't knock his head on the doorframe, Guy stepped out and swung the door closed behind them.

"Gonna get a lotta candy?" Darrin asked brightly. His slippered feet stuck out, one to each side of Guy's head.

"You better believe it," Guy said. "We're gonna get too much candy, in fact." To Tora, he whispered, "I like your costume. The eyepatch is very sexy."

"If you don't eat too much candy later, I might let you watch me take it off," she whispered back.

Guy laughed. "Yowza," he said, but his regard was warm even in the cool October night, and he brushed his hip against hers as they walked. Her thigh tingled, and Tora couldn't even blame the cold.

As they turned off the path and onto the street proper, Guðrún walking impatiently ahead, Tora said, "Why aren't you wearing a costume? Slow down, Guðrún!"

Guy looked down at his University of Michigan sweatshirt and his jeans. "I  _am_  wearing a costume. It's called 'doting father.'"

"Mm," said Tora. She patted Ingrid's back as Ingrid yawned in her sleep. "It isn't a costume if it's true."

"Well, hey," he said, "maybe later I can slip into another costume. 'Loving husband.'" He waggled his eyebrows on 'loving.'

"Not if we don't get the candy away from the children before they eat all of it," said Tora.

"Eat candy, eat candy," Darrin chanted. He thumped his hands against Guy's head.

"No candy for you, princess," said Guy.

They'd reached the first house on the street. A shadow moved behind the window, the neighbor anticipating them. Tora reached for the doorbell then paused.

"Everyone ready?" she asked.

"Ready!" said Guðrún.

"Ready," said Joseph in his bandanna and eyepatch, and: "Ready," said Darrin in his slippers and gown.

"Let 'er rip," said Guy.

Tora hit the doorbell.


End file.
